Internet voting proposals not transparent

Bev Harriswww.blackboxvoting.orgCalifornia Assemblyman Phil Ting has proposed AB 19, a bill to require the California Secretary of State to implement an Internet voting pilot project. LINK
And if you don't live in California: There are efforts to provide federal cash incentives to any state that "expedites" its voting process. And that will likely be used to shoehorn internet voting into your state as well. They tell us Internet voting is secure. It's not.
It's not secure, and can't be made secure, but that's not even the point. The point is it's not transparent. The whole premise in our constitution is that we self-govern. To do that, the public must be able to see and authenticate essential processes, like who actually voted and the vote count, and that is not possible with Internet voting.
Internet voting transfers all control to whoever runs the server. (The server is just a computer that sits in a room -- and one Internet voting company, Scytl, has its server physically sitting in Spain.) Internet voting gives the administrator complete control over the front end (who put the votes into the system) and the back end (the counting of the votes). Internet voting is trying to come on with a vengeance, and not just in California. It is now imminent.
Unless we are vigilant, many of us will be forced to vote online in 2014 and 2016.
Lobbyists are at work to persuade your legislators to install internet voting. Political support has been secured from officials in several states. The governor of Hawaii has announced he wants Internet voting. Secretaries of State from Connecticut, West Virginia, Washington, and Oregon are already pushing online voting, and soon you'll hear about it near you.
Federal bills promise cash to states that "expedite" their voting systems, with vague language as to what that means. Because Americans are skeptical about Internet voting, politicians and reporters describe it as "smart phone voting" and "iPad voting." They also call it "convenience voting" but what they don't tell us is that, in exchange for convenience, we will lose the ability to self-govern.
The California effort traces first to Assemblyman Phil Ting, but the real question is who persuaded him to do this? I'm interested in any tips citizens can provide on this. Right now, I'm paying close attention to Rose & Kindel, a lobbying firm that promoted Diebold earlier. (Johnson County, Kansas uses Diebold machines.)Rose & Kindel is the assigned firm for the Technology Association of America (Tech America), which is the new umbrella for the Information Technology Assocation of America (ITAA), a group hired by Diebold, ES&S and a consortium of other voting machine vendors a few years back for the purpose of damage control.
I took a glance at online-voting-bill-sponsor Ting's campaign finance documents and saw Oracle and Cisco among the computer firms, which is only worth a slight mental tick-mark. It is unusual to see quid pro quo in obvious places (campaign finance reports). but if you are in an inquisitive frame of mind, you'll find the complete list of donors to Phil Ting here: LINK.It can also be informative to peruse the lobbyist filings to find out who is lobbying for election-related issues and who is lobbying for technology issues. (A complete list of registered lobbyists in Kansas is available at the Kansas Secretary of State's website.)Regardless of who's behind this latest incarnation towards removal of public rights in elections, I hope to see California citizens kill this bill if it gets that far. Currently, it is in a state of "no information available."
You own the government. You pay for it. You have a right to see how your representatives are chosen. With online voting, public transparency is impossible. (Permission to reprint/excerpt granted, with link to LINK )

Black Box Voting is monitoring all 50 states this year for encroachment of Internet voting, which is now breathing down all our necks. To support our work: LINK Black Box Voting 330 SW 43rd St Suite K PMB 547 Renton WA 98057

Comments do not necessarily reflect those of The Gardner News, or staff. By posting, commentators assume all liability. Please contact webmaster to report comments that infringe on copyrights, or are of a profane or libelous nature. Webmaster reserves the right to edit or remove content deemed offensive.